Screen Free Week Prep 2014

National Screen Free week is nearly here (next week!) and I have been busy thinking and preparing for the week ahead with no screens for my family.  We participated last year and I was so worried before we began that the kids would be out of control and the week would be horribly long and difficult.  And then we did it and I was surprised to find that the kids hardly noticed and I was the one that struggled the most with screen free week.

Here's the cold, hard truth:  as a stay at home Mum with very young kids, there are large parts of the day that are unbearably boring.  Don't get my wrong, there are parts of the day that I delight in the kids sharing or playing some amazing imaginative scenario.  Other parts of the day, I'm cooking, cleaning, organizing, and planning.  And definitely parts when I'm part of the play too; reading, participating, and helping.  But there are also staggering moments that are endlessly mind-numbing.  Like when I've watched this child do the same flip off of the same couch armrest 36 times already and yet still I get, "Mum, watch this."  Oh, I know, I know.  Someday I will miss their constant need for my attention, alas, that fact does not decrease the mundane-ness of the moment right now.  So, in these moments of sheer boredom, Mumma scrolls.  She scrolls through facebook, instagram, pinterest, and other blogs.  I just need a distraction.  Isn't that the sum of life these days?  Distraction.

I'm not saying I'm proud of this - I ain't.  like at all.  But I'm just coming clean here and giving some more background for why we participate in Screen Free Week in the first place.  It's less about them right now (especially since they're too young to care about texting/facebook/instagram, etc).  My kids miss Netflix movies and tv shows during the week - and they forget about caring about that after Day1.  Mum on the other hand, my screen free week is a wake-up call just to how much of my life is distracted by screens because it's easy, it's available, and it's distracting.

So, going into our second year of Screen Free Week, instead of scared, I am excited!  Not only for myself but for the kids too.  I know this week means earlier bedtimes as the kids are more tired, I know it means more creative juice pumping in my own brain, and I know that being severely conscious of my own screen distractions makes for many more moments of awareness and intention in my day.

I am probably most excited at my book list I have organized for myself to read during the week.  I have been shamefully out of reading on a regular basis (except reading The Fault in Our Stars in a single day - this is why I can't read fiction outside of vacation!  I become consumed.)

I have lined up some books that I've been reading the past few weeks: Same Kind of Different As Me  and The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business  And my new reads: Thinking, Fast and Slow and Bossypants. And I also am awaiting to arrive in the mail: Cold in July which will be out in movie theaters this summer.  My Dad said he'd read it after me and we'll go see the movie together.

I got the kids some new books too. Rosie Revere, Engineer and The Tiger Who Came to Tea for Gemmi and some new chapter books to read to Grey during Gemmi's naptime:
My Father's Dragon: The Bestselling Children Story , Anna Hibiscus, and SuperDuper Teddy .

I've also mapped out in my planner to make an effort to focus on different parts of the Earth during the week.  Mostly because the kids are just interested in all things earth related these days.  So we'll be talking about the ocean, the rainforest, trees, bugs, and the weather for the week.  I'm using my current screentime to look up science and craft projects that align to those topics as back ups for the week if anyone gets bored (ahem, Me).  And we'll be having no lights at night - something the kids like doing anyway that makes evening and bedtime more fun; using candles instead of lights.

I recently read this quote from Kim John Payne (Author of Simplicity Parenting) that inspires me for both my kids' and my creative process in the upcoming Screen Free Week (and beyond?):

"What our kids see on a screen is someone else's creativity.  It is not their own.  Our children are growing up into a world where they will more than ever need to be innovative, adaptable, and above all, creative.  Having the courage to question the new normal of screen saturation in our kids' lives and allowing our homes to be low or no screen environments will give them the hugest advantage in their lives to come - because it gives them the space and time to transform passive consuming into active creativity."  

To get the kids talking about Screen Free Week, we created this list together of things we can do instead of TV/Movies next week.

If you're asking yourself, "Geez, Tab, if you love Screen Free week so much, why don't you marry it?"  (haha, or do it all the time, rather).  The answer is that we need to start somewhere.  I do love a week of recognizing our screen dependence and how it impacts our life.  We learned last year, for example, that if the kids don't watch tv after 5:30pm daily, bedtime is easier and we've repeatedly implemented that in our regular life through the year.  We are anxious to see what we learn this year and hopefully move toward a more creative and less passive screen consuming life little by little.

Are you planning on going Screen Free next week too?  What will you be doing?  Do you already live a low screen lifestyle at your home?  Any tips?

I've actually never...

taking a cue cue from Chantelle over at Fat Mum Slim, I've decided to write today about some things I've never done  - some of them yets and some of them probably never wills.

for more ridiculous, unflattering selfies - please be my friend on RunKeeper - HAH

Actually, I've never...

I've never liked pepperoni, even though I've really really tried to eat it and act like I don't mind it.  I've never cooked lamb, and I've never tried escargot.

I've never been arrested, never been in a fist fight, never got a speeding ticket, and never tried pot.

I've never pulled an all-nighter; I think I might be physically incapable of it.  The closest I've ever come was in middle school at a sleepover when we stayed up until 4:30am watching Dirty Dancing over and over and then all passed out until like noon.

I've never had braces, never dyed my hair blue or green, and never been very good at plucking my eyebrows.

I've never traveled to Europe (!!) although I have aspirations to.  I do however feel a stronger sense of desire to see more of South America and Asia.

I've never been allergic to anything, never been hungry or homeless, and never have I been held at gunpoint.

I've never pierced anything more than my original two holes in my ears from when I was a child and even in those I really only wear earrings on special occasions.

I've never scuba dived, ran a half marathon (let alone a full marathon), bungee jumped, or jumped out of an airplane.

I've never seen Star Wars all the way through, never learned to play poker, and never had a pizza I didn't like.



Does this list prove that I'm really boring, really lucky, or really average?
What have you actually never done?

thank YOU Thursday: a friend who has gone the distance

Dear JP,

I don't remember much of what came before the note; how we met in seventh grade and what led up to the point of us actually becoming friends.  When I think back on the start of our friendship, it is always at the starting place of "Will you be my best friend?  Circle Yes or No."  That was almost 20 years ago. 

Seventh grade was really our very best and closest time in our friendship.  Does a more awkward phase of anyone's life exist more so than seventh grade?  I tend to believe that year is the epitome of weird and honestly, I am so glad that we went through it as official "Best Friends," (somewhere there is paperwork and necklaces to prove it).

In seventh grade, I mainly cared about laughing and having a best friend.  There wasn't much concern yet about being cool (that just didn't appear to even be an option yet) and sure, we had crushes on boys (there is also paperwork to prove that entitled "The Love Book" by Jess & Tab), but mostly that year was about figuring out what I thought was funny or interesting and who had the same weirdo humor as me.  Turns out, it was you.

That year was full of passing notes, making up knicknames for everything, melting cheese onto paper (honestly, why?), and sleepovers.  We'd call each other the moment we got home from school despite the fact that we had just spent the entire day talking to each other.  My favorite moment, especially now as a mum to a future teenage girl, was when we thought we were so daring and rebellious for going to the mall and buying make-up compacts without telling our parents.  How I hope and pray that is as wild as our daughters will be at that age.

After that year, we remained close friends, but lots of other things started to become more important in our lives as teenagers.  Being cool was a viable choice we had, boyfriends became real instead of just names doodled in hearts, other friends moved into the 'best friend' slot for a short time depending on sport/activity season, classes, or summer vacation.  But all along, we were friends...and nearly 20 years later, we still are.  

We get together much less often than I'd like; living three hours from each other and having husbands, children, and friends of our own.  But I appreciate so much that when we are together it is in comfortable ease that we play catch up, and recount stories, and laugh.  

Because when it comes down to it, it was you that was there for the 'one hand in my pocket and the other one giving a peace sign,' and you were there for the Birds video, the American flag bathing suits (matching might I add), Merrill Bainbridge, and so much more that is cringe worthy now but only warranted hysterical, unabashed giggling back then.  

Thank you Jess for being my friend through so much of my life; all of high school, through college, weddings, moving, babies and motherhood.  

But even more so, thank you for being my Best Friend during the year that maybe mattered the most.  The year that is painfully awkward and that maybe if I didn't have you as a best friend I would have turned out less confident or somehow less myself.  Your friendship back then helped me feel comfortable with the me I was turning out to be.  

I hope so much that my kids have a Best Friend like you when seventh grade and all of its awkward glory rolls around.

Love forever, 

tabers

2005